How Gene the Genie found a family
by SharanMcQuack
Summary: How Mr. McDuck found a family for Gene the Genie.


How Gene the Genie found a family" 

By Sharan McQuack 

Dedicated with thanks to Odo Hirst, because it is VERY loosely based on his book, "Barlett and the City of Flames" in the hopes that he will not sue me.

(Another good book that would make a good movie, Disney!)

And Special Thanks to: Anonymous1912:

"Good story so far. The king was called "The Grand Kishke of Macaroon"

Your no-prize is waiting for you on the "Ducktales" forum over at tv .com. Hmm- was that his title or his name? Suppose it doesn't matter, everybody probably calls him by his title, at least in public. I'm assuming it's his title.

* * *

Mr. McDuck was mulling over the problem of finding a family for Gene the ex-genie. It wasn't fair to Gene to let him stay in the mansion very long. Mr. McDuck hardly had time for his nephews and the boys were so close to each other that Gene would soon feel like the odd man out. 

Trouble was, Gene was still hopelessly out-of-date. Modern times still perplexed him. And how to explain him? Very few people believe in Magic anymore, so how could Mr. McDuck tell them that Gene used to be a Genie?

Then Mr. McDuck thought of Arabian countries, where Gene had come from ages ago.  
Many countries there were old fashioned in their ways, many people there still believed in Magic.

So Mr. McDuck decided to call his old friend the Grand Kishke of Macaroon from the "Ducktales" episode: "Working for Scales" thinking perhaps he could help find a foster family for Gene.

However, Mr. McDuck got very unpleasant news from his friend- the king's son, young prince Lientval (Spell it sidewise. Ignore extra "l".) had been kidnapped! When Mr. McDuck heard that, he decided to go help his friend get his son back. Mr. McDuck called Launchpad.

But before they left, he and Launchpad went over every inch of the plane to make sure the boys were NOT hiding aboard, as is their wont. They also had Mrs. Beakly check in on the boys before they left for the distant land of Macaroon.

Soon, Mr. McDuck and Launchpad were in Macaroon, in the Grand Kishke's palace. "My son was taken by people calling themselves the Underlings- they live in caves far deeper than the ones where I found the Firefly Fruit growing!" the Grand Kishke began

"They saw the Fruit is theirs- that those plants are an underground orchard that they planted and they take care of! They say I stole their fruit, so they took my son!

How can I convince them that I did NOT know the fruit belong to anyone! It never occurred to me that people could live deep underground- I never heard of such a thing! I would not have taken the fruit if I knew! I deserve to be punished for not checking things out farther, but my son did nothing wrong!" said the Grand Kishke, who was too worried about his son to be acting like a twit.

"Don't worry, old friend, I will help get your son back." Mr. McDuck said.

"Ahem! You mean WE will." Launchpad put in.

" Launchpad, this really isn't your concern..." Mr. McDuck began.

" I'm making it my concern. A kid has been kidnapped, and you expect me to sit here doing nothing? Besides, you might need my help!" Launchpad said.

"Grand Kishke, your son has been found in the company of three young boys- but he does not seem to know who he is! We fear they have hypnotized or brainwashed him!" said one of the king's men.

The triplets and Gene were brought in to the throne room. "Hey! Leggo! Mr. McDuck, tell them who I am!" Gene said.

"Gene? Boys?" Mr. McDuck said. The Grand Kishke stared at Gene in amazement.

"You are NOT my son! You look just like him- but you are not my son!" the Grand Kiski said.

"Course not. How can I even look like your son when you are a dog and I'm a duck- or at least I am now." Gene inquired.

"Lientval is adopted. His mother died while she was under my protection. I failed to protect her from her enemies, therefore, I must raise her son as if he was my own." Grand Kishke said

"Tradition demands this, as does my conscience. Since I have no other sons, Prince Lientval is my heir- it caused much controversy to adopt him, to name him heir, yet I had no choice. I do not regret it."

"But how did you boys get here? Launchpad and I searched the plane and found nobody!" Mr. McDuck demanded.

"Hey, I was a genie for thousands of years! You think I did not learn enough magic to make us so teeny-tiny we could hide in a place so small you'd never look there?" Gene asked/answered.

"You still have magical powers?" Mr. McDuck asked.

"More like magical KNOWLEDGE. I was a genie for a long, long time. "Gene said "I learned a lot of magic and I can still do some. Like creating an illusion of us real enough to fool Mrs. Beakly. Webby might have caught on, but she was busy watching her favorite tv show- we sort of made a tape of it and gave it to her to get her out of way."

"Maybe Gene can help get the Prince back with his magic, Uncle Scrooge?" Huey suggested, seeing a chance to tag along.

"And get kidnapped, too? Why do you think I tried to leave you home?" Mr. McDuck yelled. "Yeah, but we don't know our way around here. We might get lost and accidentally end up with you- after it's too late for you to turn back, of course." Dewey said, all innocence.

" Or we might REALLY get lost and end up who knows where!" Louie put in.

"Oh, all right! You can come! But stay out of trouble! And that includes YOU, too!" roared Mr. McDuck, his last comment aimed at LAUNCHPAD, of course.

"As my kid sister Loopy would say "Whatever"!" replied Launchpad, happy to get to help.

The Grand Kishke's men led them down to the caves where the Firefly fruit grows, but did not know how to proceed from there. Mr.McDuck told them they could go home, if they wished, since Grand Kishke's men knew the way no better than the Ducktales gang did.

The Grand Kishke's men evaporated almost before the words were out of his beak! There was something about the thought of people living under their feet, unseen, unknown that gave them the jib-jams.

The gang searched the area, looking for a way farther down and saw nothing. EVERYBODY was naturally looking down for a hole, a gap, a passage leading farther down. But Launchpad found something by accident when he bumped his head on a low-ceilinged part of the cave. (Like it's Launchpad's fault that is not a problem Mr. McDuck has to deal with terribly often?)

There was a hole on the ceiling that first led up and then went down. They had not realized they were no longer directly under the palace. They had gone far in some direction, no telling which one, Launchpad's compass was not working. "Must be magnets in some of these rocks." Launchpad muttered.

They kept going till they reached an underground city. The Underlings greeted them warmly and Mr. McDuck explained he was here from the Grand Kishke of Macaroon, to apologize for not realizing the Firefly Fruit was owned by them.

Mr. McDuck said he would pay fairly for the fruit already taken, if only Prince Lientval was returned. "That is for our King to decide." the Underlings replied. And they took the Ducktales Ducks to their King.

Another unpleasant surprise. The King was all too familiar to them. "Tomlin!" said a surprised Mr. McDuck. (1)

"I see you remember me. These peoples' ancestors came from Erthguard, centuries ago. Their ancestors were explorers, who traveled first to the surface, then sailed the seas to settle here." Tomlin said, and then he dismissed his guards, telling them to wait outside the throne room.

"None of the explorers were of royal blood. All were commoners! They had some crazy form of government they called a "democracy"- whatever THAT is- here! Then I showed up, and used my magic to imprison their "President"- and took over the throne, as is my right! I am the only one of the ancient Royal blood of Erthguard, here." Tomlin began.

When I found out the ruler of the upper lands was a friend of yours and he had stolen these peoples' fruit, albeit unintentionally, I saw an opportunity to get even with you for preventing me from ruling Erthguard!" Tomlin said

"I led these people to believe your friend had taken their fruit on purpose, which made them angry, for there is often hunger here. I stole your friend's son, I will hold him until there is a war with Maccoon and then, after I have taken your friend's kingdom away from him- I will take my army over the sea and re-take Erthguard!"

Tomlin then rang a bell and the guards came back into the throne room. "Take them to a cell!" Tomlin screamed and the guards did so.

"Ya know, Mr. McDee, we spend more time in prison then some crooks do!" Launchpad joked, trying to keep their spirits up.

"We have to get out of here! " Mr. McDuck roared. Launchpad took out the compass from his pocket, again, it was going nuts.

"Why are you wasting time with a compass when we are stuck in here?" Mr. McDuck demanded.

"Because I may have a way out of here. There must be a rock that's a magnet- a very strong magnet- someplace in this stone wall. Ah! Here it is!" said Launchpad, noticing which rock made the compass go crazy whenever it was near. "Now- if I can figure out a way to get it near enough to the keys..." Launchpad said, eyeing the keys on a hook on a wall.

"Here- use my cane." Mr. McDuck said

. "Good idea! " said Launchpad, and he took a bit of string from his pocket and tied the rock to Mr. McDuck's cane. Then Launchpad took off his leather jacket, stuck the cane thru the bars and his arm, too- as far as he could reach.

Launchpad could not reach far enough to touch the keys- or the guards would of never let Mr. McDuck keep his cane. But he did reach far enough for the magnet to cause the keys to "fly" off the hook to the magnet!

"Got it!" Launchpad said.

"That was good thinking, Launchpad!" Mr. McDuck said. But hardly had they got out of their cell, did the guards come back into the prison's passage way.

"How did you escape?" one guard asked.

"They must have magic powers! See- they have the KEYS- and I know I left them on it's hook!" a second guard said.

"Run! The prisoners have magic powers! They have used them to escape!"

"Magic powers, eh? They must not know about magnets. And maybe they don't know about technology at all! Lads, I think we can bluff the Underlings to fearing us and helping win back their freedom- if they think we all have magic powers!" Mr. McDuck said.

They started looking for supplies to do "magic" with. Launchpad found some silk and bamboo the locals must have brought down from the surface. He made some hang-gliders and soon they were taking advantage of the fact the underground world was "windy"- had strong drafts of air blowing around.(2)

They all had fun, gliding on air currents. Then the triplets had even more fun. They borrowed some visually identical shirts from a clothesline (3) leaving their shirts and hats as "collateral".

Then one would pop up, be noticed by the Underlings, dodge down and then another would pop up elsewhere. The Underlings thought they could materize and dematerize! (The few Underlings who had seen them come had not noticed the triplets.)

Mr. McDuck was also enjoying himself. He was using a hidden talent for parlor "magic". He was pulling quarters from the back of peoples' heads (ducks have no external ears), pulling silk scarves out of his top hat, stuff like that. Bet you didn't know he knows how to do that? (4)

Then Mr. McDuck took out of his pocket a bag of party balloons- the long, thin kind that he had taken from his nephews. They, Webby and Gene had used them in a massive water-balloon fight. Which might have been OK if they weren't doing so INDOORS. (5)

Mr. McDuck blew them up (6) and made silly animals out of them and let them bob off.

It wasn't long before the Underlings were sufficiently impressed and frightened by their "magic powers" to be willing to take on Tomlin. They did NOT like Tomlin in the slightest.

The Underlings did NOT want to be ruled by Tomlin, but were too scared to protest before. The Ducktales gang and a ragtag army of Underlings soon attacked Tomlin's throne room. Tomlin tried to use his powers against the Underlings.

Tomlin had never needed to do that before, he had shown what he could do on cave animals and inanimate objects. Now Tomlin found out his powers did NOT work on ANY of the Underlings.

Tomlin realized they were ALL relatives of his. Ever since Queen Alice banished him, his powers could not work against kin. Tomlin realized that the Captain of the original explorer crew must have been a relative of his- a commoner, but a relative. By now, hundreds of years later, everybody down there was an indirect descendant of said original Captain.

So Tomlin decided to use his powers against the Ducktales gang. "They have magic powers, like yours, Tomlin!" a local said.

"They do NOT. I know about the tricks they have been playing. I do not know how they did those tricks, but they do NOT have magic powers!" Tomlin said and cast a spell against the Ducktales gang. Didn't work. It was only an illusion of the Ducktales gang cast by Gene.

" I have magic, even if they do not." Gene said.

"Ah! But how much can you DO?" Tomlin asked. Gene tried to shrink Tomlin tiny and Tomlin blocked his efforts to do so. But while Gene was keeping Tomlin busy, Launchpad knocked Tomlin out cold with a good old fashioned right cross.

"Good work, Gene. By not using your knowledge till the last minute, Tomlin thought none of us had magic!" Launchpad said.

"I'm not finished, yet. As long as he has magic, he is still dangerous. I will take his magic power away from him." Gene said.

"'Won't he still have magical knowledge, the way you do, lad?" Mr. McDuck asked.

"Don't think so. He has not been around any place as long as I have." Gene replied.

"We will keep him in prison, to punish him. Even if he has magic knowledge, there is not much he can do behide iron (7) bars, with no supplies and being carefully watched." the once-and now again President of the Underlings said.

Soon everything was straightened out. Prince Lientval was released, the Firefly Fruit that had been already been taken was paid for and the Underlings and the Macaroons hammered out a deal to trade lots of food and surface goods for Firefly Fruit, gold and other metals and oil.

"Gene, would you like to stay with us? You could be brother to Prince Lientval. Since you rescued him, no one would object too much to my adopting you." the Grand Kishke offered

" Especially since it is traditional among us for the heir to have a body-double as a brother. No Kishke in centuries has been anything more than a figurehead and you will be well protected.

You will be Prince and only have to cut ribbons and make speeches as if you were Lientval, sparing him tiresome tasks. You would be rich, you would live in luxury, and you would have very little work to do, none of it arduous, although boring. What do you say?" the Grand Kishke asked.

"Sure! Can I call you "Dad"?" Gene asked.

**The End.**

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(1) See my fanfiction story "Down to Erth". Shameless plug.

(2) I have no idea if this would work. Lord knows if silk and bamboo are strong enough, lord knows if silk would retain air well enough. You would think silk would work, parachutes were made from it, but I definitely do NOT recommend finding out the hard way.

Worked in issue #2 of "Disney's Ducktales". Underground, yet. In " The city of Pandamonda" Shameless plugs are a comic book tradition.

(3) No sun underground, but clothes still drip-dry and dry in warm "breeze".

(4)Mr. McDuck pulled the Golden Sun coin from behide one of the local's heads in "Treasure of the Golden Suns")

(5) It was raining and they were bored and unless you WANT to be spanked, I do not recommend trying this.

(6)This alone seemed like "magic" to the Underlings, they had never seen balloons before- their forays to the surface were brief, in rural areas and done only by a handful of locals)

(7) Iron is supposed to prevent witches and wizards from using their powers.


End file.
